Coalition Of US Muslim Brotherhood Groups Hosts Virtual Meetings With Texas State Legislators

On 28 Jan­u­ary 2021, a coali­tion of US Mus­lim advo­ca­cy groups tied to the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood and head­ed by the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Orga­ni­za­tions (CAIR) – Texas was sched­uled to host the bi-annu­al “Texas Mus­lim Capi­tol Day,” a civic engage­ment event pro­vid­ing Mus­lim cit­i­zens an oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in meet­ings with leg­isla­tive offices and state sen­a­tors. Accord­ing to a state­ment on the CAIR website:

On Jan­u­ary 28th, the Texas chap­ters of the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR-Texas) – the local chap­ters of the nation’s largest Mus­lim civ­il rights and advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tion, will host Texas Mus­lim Capi­tol Day (vir­tu­al­ly). The 10th Texas Mus­lim Capi­tol Day is a day-long event for Texas Mus­lims to engage with the polit­i­cal process. The event includes meet­ings with elect­ed offi­cials. (…) This year near­ly 150 Tex­ans are par­tic­i­pat­ing in TMCD with 52 sched­uled meet­ings with Leg­isla­tive offices.

Read the rest here.

The event, whose prepara­to­ry work includ­ed detailed train­ing and lis­ten­ing ses­sions, cul­mi­nat­ed in 25-minute online meet­ings of pre-select­ed and trained del­e­ga­tions with State Sen­a­tors and State Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, in which the del­e­ga­tions request­ed con­sid­er­a­tion of sev­er­al bills, includ­ing police reform, the abol­ish­ment of con­fed­er­ate heroes cel­e­bra­tions in Texas, and mail-in vot­ing. For the event, CAIR-Texas part­nered with sev­er­al oth­er Mus­lim advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tions tied to the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, including:

• Mus­lim Stu­dent Asso­ci­a­tions at Texas A&M Uni­ver­si­ty and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Houston

• Mus­lim Amer­i­can Soci­ety Youth Center

• Islam­ic Soci­ety of North Amer­i­ca – Greater Houston

• Mus­lim Legal Fund of Amer­i­ca, whose Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Khalil Meek also serves as a board mem­ber of the US Coun­cil of Mus­lim Orga­ni­za­tions (USCMO)

• USCMO found­ing mem­ber Islam­ic Cir­cle of North Amer­i­ca – Coun­cil on Social Justice

In Jan­u­ary 2021, the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) report­ed that CAIR pub­lished a list of Mus­lim indi­vid­u­als elect­ed to State Leg­is­la­tures with ties to the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. Oth­er recent GIOR report­ing on CAIR and US elec­tions has included:

• A Novem­ber 2020 report that CAIR has issued a state­ment con­grat­u­lat­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic Pres­i­dent-elect Joe Biden on his vic­to­ry, vow­ing to hold the forth­com­ing admin­is­tra­tion account­able on Mus­lim inclu­sion and civ­il rights issues.
• A Novem­ber 2020 report that 27-year-old CAIR board mem­ber Mau­ree Turn­er had been elect­ed to the Okla­homa state legislature.

• An Octo­ber 2020 report that CAIR was part of a coali­tion of Mus­lim and Arab groups tied to the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood that launched a vot­er reg­is­tra­tion dri­ve head­ed by indi­vid­u­als strong­ly opposed to Don­ald Trump.

• An Octo­ber 2020 report that CAIR was part of a group of Amer­i­can Mus­lim advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tions tied to the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood that con­duct­ed a pre-elec­tion “Mus­lims In Amer­i­ca Pol­i­cy Poll,” sur­vey­ing 1,500 peo­ple in 45 states who were asked to pri­or­i­tize pol­i­cy issues.

• An Octo­ber 2020 report that Cal­i­for­nia Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty offi­cials work­ing for CAIR had authored an elec­tion vot­ing guide pos­i­tive­ly rat­ing votes by Demo­c­rat law­mak­ers, includ­ing Vice Pres­i­dent-elect Kamala Har­ris, who ear­li­er had sent let­ters of sup­port to CAIR.

The Coun­cil on Amer­i­can Islam­ic Rela­tions is part of the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood, a transna­tion­al Islamist net­work cov­ered by the GIOR. It describes itself as “a grass­roots civ­il rights and advo­ca­cy group” and as “America’s largest Islam­ic civ­il lib­er­ties group.” It was found­ed in 1994 by three offi­cers of the Islam­ic Asso­ci­a­tion of Pales­tine, part of the U.S. Hamas infra­struc­ture at that time.

For more on CAIR, go here.